FTP Settings Refinements

[ingenuitor]

Were can I find this in this version? I looked and do not see this in the Options > Tweaks or anywhere else? Thanks

REf: http://www.scootersoftware.com/suppo...=kb_tweaks.php

FTP KeepAliveCommands NOOP;PWD Semicolon separated list of commands to use for keep alive.

FTP KeepAliveInterval 0 Time in seconds to send commands to keep an FTP connection open.

[Aaron]

Hello,

BC3 and BC4 send packets regularly to keep the connection alive, instead of full commands. Does this not work for you?

The KB article you found is specifically for BC2 (BC2 required registry editing, BC3 had a hidden Tweaks dialog, BC4 includes Tweaks within the main Options dialog).

[grindax]

Speaking of keeping connections alive:

I find that in BC3, SFTP connections don't stay alive on their own. I find that a Full Refresh will always re-connect to the SFTP server, and even doing a normal Refresh will have to re-connect to the SFTP server if it's done after just a few idle minutes (maybe 3-5 minutes, I haven't timed it exactly).

This is with SFTP connections to strongspace.com

[ingenuitor]

Hello,

BC3 and BC4 send packets regularly to keep the connection alive, instead of full commands. Does this not work for you?

The KB article you found is specifically for BC2 (BC2 required registry editing, BC3 had a hidden Tweaks dialog, BC4 includes Tweaks within the main Options dialog).

Yes this does not work for me and I'm finding many other FTP type issues in BC4, to the point I had to uninstall BC4. Will wait for the RC I guess.

The directory browsing is really really bad now, no more browsing FTP sub directories, that's 100% gone?

Love BC3, live in it 24/7, worth every penny and more and could not live without it, but BC4 for me is turning out to be a mess.

I'm trying to embrace new, but it's missing so many working features that I can't live without, not sure how the end results will turn out.

Hope these issues will be solved in due time before the RC.

Thanks for the quick reply and have a great day.

[ingenuitor]

Speaking of keeping connections alive:

I find that in BC3, SFTP connections don't stay alive on their own. I find that a Full Refresh will always re-connect to the SFTP server, and even doing a normal Refresh will have to re-connect to the SFTP server if it's done after just a few idle minutes (maybe 3-5 minutes, I haven't timed it exactly).

This is with SFTP connections to strongspace.com

Agreed, I have the same issue, I can't set features like other FTP clients, so I limp along until it's fixed or they add the feature in.

[Zoë]

Yes this does not work for me and I'm finding many other FTP type issues in BC4, to the point I had to uninstall BC4. Will wait for the RC I guess.

If you're having issues with the beta then please provide feedback on what it's doing that doesn't work for you. If you don't it's very unlikely that it will be fixed in the final release.

BC3 didn't support the keep alive commands either. Is there some reason that the automatic reconnect functionality isn't sufficient?

The directory browsing is really really bad now, no more browsing FTP sub directories, that's 100% gone?

You can still browse FTP directories, you just need to set up a remote profile first using the "Manage Profiles" button. The browse dialog and profile management will be improving in an upcoming release.

[Zoë]

I find that in BC3, SFTP connections don't stay alive on their own.

The server is obviously configured to close the connection after a certain amount of inactivity. Is there some reason that BC's automatic reconnect doesn't work for you?

I find that a Full Refresh will always re-connect to the SFTP server

That's intentional. Full Refresh is designed to clear out any bad or cached state, including any active connections.

A normal Refresh will have to re-connect to the SFTP server if it's done after just a few idle minutes (maybe 3-5 minutes, I haven't timed it exactly).

That's controlled by the server. BC won't close an idle connection on it's own.

[grindax]

BC3 and BC4 send packets regularly to keep the connection alive, instead of full commands. Does this not work for you?

The server is obviously configured to close the connection after a certain amount of inactivity.

I'm having trouble reconciling these two statements. My expectation is that BC should be actively keeping the connection alive, so that the server doesn't close it.

[Zoë]

I misremembered when I told Aaron how it worked. The keep alive packets are only sent on the control connection of plain FTP connections during file transfers, in order to keep firewalls from closing the connection during long transfers. They're never used for SFTP connections or when the connection is actually idle.

[grindax]

Can keep alives please be implemented for idle SFTP and FTP connections?

Reason: I would prefer to be in control of when the connection closes, rather than the server. Also, re-establishing the connection takes a few seconds each time. I'm used to other software (WinSCP, PuTTY, etc.) allowing keep alives to be used.

[ingenuitor]

Can keep alives please be implemented for idle SFTP and FTP connections?

Reason: I would prefer to be in control of when the connection closes, rather than the server. Also, re-establishing the connection takes a few seconds each time. I'm used to other software (WinSCP, PuTTY, etc.) allowing keep alives to be used.

I agree with you 1,000,000 %

[Aaron]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll add this feature request to our tracker database, and we'll hopefully be able to schedule it. There are a few other high priority projects in front of it (such as reworking the Browse dialog), so it won't likely make it into the next beta release.

[ingenuitor]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll add this feature request to our tracker database, and we'll hopefully be able to schedule it. There are a few other high priority projects in front of it (such as reworking the Browse dialog), so it won't likely make it into the next beta release.

That's great, impressive that the request may even make it into the BC4 version. Thanks again for the great support.

[grindax]

The latest beta release (3 April) has some great SFTP improvements, but not this one yet.

Hopefully keepalives can make it into the next version!

(btw, I'd like to see an open connection kept alive even when doing a Full Refresh).

[Zoë]

(btw, I'd like to see an open connection kept alive even when doing a Full Refresh).

That definitely won't be changed. Full Refresh is designed to redo everything from scratch; it's something of an escape hatch if something gets messed up with the comparison or the connections.